Eli Explains the Monnett Saga

Michael Tobis, editor-in-chief of Planet3.0 and site cofounder, has always been interested in the interface between science and public policy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where he developed a 3-D ocean model on a custom computing platform. He has been involved in sustainability conversations on the internet since 1992, has been a web software developer since 2000, and has been posting sustainability articles on the web since 2007.

At dinner during AGU week, Eli was explaining his view of the Monnett saga. I thought it important enough to be written up, and Eli has not only obliged, but dedicated it to me:

Michael Tobis last month asked Eli to explain why the Department of the Interior was going after Charles Monnett. The Kulluk is the short answer, more specifically BOEM wanting to approve Shell’s drilling plans for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Email leaks from Monnett were used to tie Shell, BOEM and BSEE up in court, delaying the issuance of permits four years from 2008 to late 2012 and indeed, this was the only ground that at the conclusion of their farcical investigation that the DOI Inspector General cited to reprimand Monnett.

I am most pleased by Eli’s prompt attention to the matter.

I don’t have any way of verifying Eli’s version of events, but it is a heck of a lot more plausible than the entertainingly absurd cover story about polar bears. Either way, as Eli points out, it does raise interesting questions about the environmental bona fides of the current administration.

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Just wanted to point out this is a sad but important story. While the inimitable Rabbett style is withoutt peer, PEER has the story here as well, which may or may not include uncovered nuggets from the gold rush:
http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/01/10/alaska-dropped-ball-on-runaway-shell-vessel/

Another story being revisited is the Sullivan UVa Dragas saga, which I always suspicioned was an attempt to further attack science on climate change:
http://www.wvtf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2688:climategate&catid=48:wvtf-news&Itemid=119

I'm not the clever bunny who found these, I got them from Tenney Naumer who has a great eye for news and a good mind which allows her to understand a wide variety of material:
http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/
http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/

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